I’m not quite sure where to post this enquiry so I thought I’d try this board.
I came across a woman in my family tree called Ann Jean Martineau born 1917 in Chelsea, daughter of Cyril Edgar Martineau, an English stockbroker. Jean’s mother, Muriel Robbins, was an American by birth and a 1st cousin of President F.D. Roosevelt.
There’s various mention of Jean in the newspaper archives, particularly during her debutante season in London in the 1930’s. She even attended a dance held for her at the White House during Roosevelt’s term of office.
Jean was a nurse at St Thomas’s Hospital during WW2 but soon after hostilities ended she married a chap called Peter Cazenove, a wartime Spitfire fighter pilot. Peter was the son of Percy Cazenove, another stockbroker who reached the rank of Major in the Hertfordshire Yeomanry during The Great War.
Peter Cazenove’s exploits during WW2 make interesting reading. In March 1940 Flying Officer Cazenove was providing air support over Calais to the retreating British troops when his aircraft was hit by airborne enemy fire and he was forced to make a ‘wheels up’ landing on the beach. He was subsequently captured by German troops and after several failed attempts was eventually sent to Stalag Luft III which was the PoW camp famous for The Great Escape of March 1944. His aircraft was recovered from a sandbank on the French coast several decades later and fully re-constructed to original specification and airworthy condition.
Peter Cazenove married again in 1957 to Edna Marjorie Hollis (nee Davie). He died in 1980 in Angmering on Sea in West Sussex. There’s no further trace of Jean Martineau beyond the late 1940’s. She featured on the front cover of Country Life in 1946 a few months after her marriage to Peter and was living with her mother at 35 Sloane Avenue, Chelsea in 1948 under her married name. Her mother continued to live at the Sloane Avenue address until her death in 1971 but I’ve not seen any electoral register records showing daughter Jean was living there after 1948.
Can anyone shed any light on what became of Jean Martineau? I’m guessing she may have moved to the US.
Cheers,
Chris
